Posted
by
Soulskillon Saturday February 06, 2010 @02:59PM
from the paper-toss-2-the-revenge dept.

A new report by Game Developer Research reveals that the number of developers working on games for the iPhone continues to rise, roughly doubling in number from last year. At the same time, the amount of work done on games for Nintendo's Wii dropped significantly:
"Just over 70 percent of developers said they were developing at least one game for PC or Mac (including browser and social games), rising slightly from last year; 41 percent reported working on console games. Within that latter group, Xbox 360 was the most popular system with 69 percent of console developers targeting it, followed by 61 percent for PlayStation 3. While those console figures stayed within a few percent of last year's results, the change in Wii adoption was much more significant: reported developer support for the system dropped from 42 percent to 30 percent of console developers, supporting numerous publishers' claims of a recent softening of the Wii market."

The summary seems to create the assumption that the same developers which are abandoning the Wii are moving to the iPhone.

You're likely right. I imagine the recession starting in 2008 has slowed major label video game development in general, and a different group of developers are doing things on the iPhone. Unlike Wii Shop Channel, which requires developers to have a dedicated office and a successful commercial title on another platform, Apple's App Store model (almost an exact copy of Microsoft's Xbox Live Indie Games) is much friendlier to 1- and 2-man shops.

XNA Game Studio 2.0 [wikipedia.org] (which introduced what is now Xbox Live Indie Games): December 2007. App Store [wikipedia.org]: July 2008. When I first read about the App Store's business model, I found the $99 fee and the 70/30 split to be suspicious similarities.

Well, it's not completely wrong.We did some video games on Nintendo DS, it was easier for us to get a Wii (because we didn't have to do all the paperwork again and Nintendo knew us already) so we tried that.But it didn't work so well. If you don't sell more than 2000 or 3000 games on WiiWare, you don't get any money (and... we got nothing yet:) ).We tried a game on DSi (DSiWare) and our engine was already cross-platform so we ported it on the iPhone.I don't know if every studio like us did the same thing, but the Wii is dead. We don't know yet if the iPhone will be a viable platform for us, our game isn't out yet.

Top sellers on Wii include Carnival Games, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart, and similar party favorites. These video games allow up to four players to join in without having to own a separate console, monitor, and copy of the game per player. The PC app store Steam, on the other hand, is limited by the comparatively small median monitor of a PC, where it's difficult for four players holding gamepads to see the screen. True, it is fairly easy to connect a PC to the VGA or HDMI input on an HDTV, thereby f

Steam is a market. If your game gets on steam, and it's good, you're guaranteed 5 digit sales. Those are sales you would not have if you stuck with console-only distribution - and apparently the amount of sales is far superior to the Wii Shop channel.

Your arguments are poorly thought out. Most console ports support the same controllers - often they require them for the best experience.

Steam is a market. If your game gets on steam, and it's good, you're guaranteed 5 digit sales. Those are sales you would not have if you stuck with console-only distribution - and apparently the amount of sales is far superior to the Wii Shop channel.

Your arguments are poorly thought out. Most console ports support the same controllers - often they require them for the best experience.

is limited by the comparatively small median monitor of a PC

What is this? Are you a console fanboy?

My PC is more than capable of powering games across multiple monitors. It could do it with a combined res of 4096x1152 just fine, giving almost 50 inches of beautifully dense pixels.

But no PC games that I know of support such a hotseat mode. The limitations are with the software - not the hardware. (which is way way way superior)

Berate PC games as being buggy featureless pieces of crap if you must, but don't insult the hardware. The hardware is awesome.

You've never met tepples before, I see. He's had a hardon for split-screen type play from PCs for years, since he doesn't like the console lock-in.

But no PC games that I know of support such a hotseat mode. The limitations are with the software - not the hardware.

And why does this software have such a limitation? Based on everything I've read in other Slashdot comments, it's because there aren't enough customers in the PC gaming market who have the appropriate hardware. Major-label PC games aimed at the median PC gamer are designed for the median PC monitor, which is smaller than the median console monitor. This in turn is because the median PC gamer is less of a hardcore enthusiast than someone like you who runs dual head 1080p-class monito

Guaranteed 5 digits is pretty good. The iPhone has a guaranteed 2 digits, and the Wii only ~4.:P

And why does this software have such a limitation? Based on everything I've read in other Slashdot comments, it's because there aren't enough customers in the PC gaming market who have the appropriate hardware. Major-label PC games aimed at the median PC gamer are designed for the median PC monitor, which is smaller than the median console monitor. This in turn is because the median PC gamer is less of a hardcore enthusiast than someone like you who runs dual head 1080p-class monitors. One person does not a market make.

There are plenty of customers out there. What publishers don't grasp, is we're not all on their schedule. People upgrade at different times. Although there's a big burst on release, you could get a steady stream of sales for years after release, especially if you drop the price every once and a while.

I know people with computers that will only play older games like Far Cry. Wh

You make absolutely no sense in the context of this thread. The Wii sells some party games. Some of them sell very well. What does that have to do with developers abandoning the platform? No one but you really cares about your own pet peeve.

"But I get an impression from other Slashdot users" You might not want to base your opinion on what a few people on Slashdot say.

You're generalizing from the Download-Only market. The thing is that WiiWare is a minority platform where only a tiny amount of money is made. Nintendo are certainly keen to get into this growing market, but don't think it's going to edge in on their traditional market anytime soon.

I largely agree with your statement, but I would imagine that there is are least *some* developers jumping ship from Wii (or, more likely, DS/DSi) to iPhone/iPod. And they're probably making games for the older consumers that Nintendo has been courting in recent years.

For all the talk of Apple's restrictive policies, Nintendo's stance towards developers is almost draconian by comparison. Development kits for Nintendo hardware run into the thousands of $$$ -- assuming Nintendo even sells you a devkit, which they won't unless you're an established developer or you're being published by someone with a known track record. And unlike Apple which takes 30% off the top, Nintendo's cut is largely determined on a case-by-case basis (EA probably gets a much more lucrative deal than a small publisher.

That will be the same for any console developer. iPhone is different in the sense that is much cheaper and anyone can buy a licence but then you also have to deal with the fact you can't compete directly with Apple or that your app will disappear from the app store or stupid reasons like mentioning Android.

I think you're under-estimating Apple's nazi-like control over the app store. At least Nintendo won't let you release a game and then yank it off the shelves after it has launched and they will allow y

No, it isn't the same for any console developer. It is cheap and much less restrictive to develop for the 360. Nintendo has always been overly careful with their developers. But they do it in strange ways because there is probably more shovelware on the Wii this generation than any other console.

The majority of Wii games are shovelware. These developers don't care about quality games, they care about maximum profit via little investment and ignorance. They probably throw a couple of Collins College graduates at a title and if it turns on and doesn't crash in 5 minutes it is good to go. It wouldn't surprise me if some of them said "learn to code for the iphone in a week, have something we can ship in 8".

Exactly. The Wii had the largest number of incompetent developers, by far, attracted by the smell of a quick buck from shovelware... and it's probably a good thing that they're jumping ship to an even more exploitative, fad-driven device.

Hell, if a bunch of Wii developers move to the iPhone, the average quality of developers on both will rise. I don't think any important developers are going to abandon the Wii.

If you like Tower Defense type games check out Azgard Defence. I have it for my crappy windows mobile and it is the first game that I have played that made the device worth anything. It is available for the ipod touch so it should be even better at that. I'm not affiliated with them, Zuma is probably my favorite casual game ever, short of the original gameboy Tetris with original 8-bit music, something I don't think anyone has done since except for on emulators.

Exactly... if you program something for the iPhone, and Apple approves it, it's on the store. On the big 3 consoles, even if you're an amateur studio who gets their game published on there, you're still semi-pro - I guess a bit less so on XBLA since they're pretty open.

I wouldn't be surprised if the raw number of developers was even 10x higher on iPhone - it's somewhere between computer and console in terms of available software. Now if companies like Capcom, Konami, Square-Enix, Sega, Namco, etc started dr

The DSi has both an online app store and a retail channel. The DS and DS Lite have only the retail channel, and retail channels strongly favor major labels, even on fully open platforms such as PC. So among handheld platforms with an app store, I count iPhone+iPod Touch, PSP+PSP Go, and DSi. Of the three, only Apple's app store has an official developer program open to the general public.

each itunes account can support up to 5 computers and as far as i know an unlimited number of idevices like the iphone, ipod or apple TV. you buy something once from the iTunes store and you can play it back on any device associated with that account

Sorry, but that's bullshit. I've had activated computers die more than once. You load up iTunes (on any working machine), go into "account settings" and click "deauthorize all". You can then freely authorize any five computers.

I've done this multiple times. I've had three different machines die when "authorized", done this each time, yet right this moment I have five different machines authorized to play with the same account.

But this argument doesn't make sense, because the basic facts are that the Wii has sold 67 million, and all of the Iphone models combined are only at a mere 42 million, even taking into account that a family buys more phones than consoles.

And what about the Nintendo DS (that is the obvious better comparison to the Iphone)? At 125 million units sold, the Iphone doesn't come anywhere near close. Then there are the hundreds of millions of phones from other manufacturers, most notably Nokia...

Ah yes, let's include made up "projected" figures of vaporware that's not been released. Why is there any reason to think future sales of this device will surpass Nintendo's future sales, either of their current products, or others that they may release?

Troll? Sorry some folks with thin skins and mod points can't handle the reality check, but 62 million and 67 million are not hugely different numbers, and with 3 million of these things (on average) selling in an average month, that's a little over a month worth of sales. The numbers don't lie.

The fact is that console gaming is a fairly limited market. Not that many people are willing to spend hundreds of bucks for a device that just plays games. The market for console games is shrinking; the market for

You are right - all of those things are indeed different. Also different is the model of payment. For example a 4 person family buys a game once for the Wii and plays it on one device (but all 4 can play and so can their friends who visit). But with the iPhone you can sell that game to each family member (assuming they are the "dumb, rich" market segment and are both rich and foolish enough to get their kids iPhones). But some developers would be looking at the $$$ from selling a game to the same family more than once.

You're dumb enough to not know that if they're all on the same iTunes account, one person buys it, it can be ran on all the iphones.

Of course it's easier to make a game for the iPhone than the Wii, so more casual developers and small teams are going to start working on them. So as they enter game development, the percentage of Wii developers will decrease. But what about the total number of Wii developers? I am willing to bet they actually increased, stayed the same or slightly decreased. And the two platforms are not really comprable so that all this is, is some meaningless fistclenching by fans of Apple.

Does it matter if there are 100x more "game developers" for the iPhone if 99% of the games are crap?

True, barriers to entry like having a dedicated office and having a prior commercial title on another platform (source: warioworld.com) are ostensibly supposed to sort wheat from chaff. But they also increase the chance of falsely rejecting a viable work, which means games not really meant for a PC at all have to get released on PC because neither of the two console makers with reliable hardware (Nintendo and Sony) will give a micro-ISV a chance.

mostly all of nintendo's biggest games for wii or any of their platforms are developed in-house anyways, so it'll mean the heaps of crap disguised as games being thrown at the wii daily will be slightly less frequent, while the titles with actual quality behind them (not quality ideas, just quality presentation and design) won't be bothered

...was its very weak multiplayer capability. The Xbox 360 player puts on the headphone/mic headset and is instantly talking to his circle of friends over the internet while navigating through a virtual world with them. The Wii does not allow the two-way voice communication with other players. If the Wii players want to gather in the same room and play they will find that there are very few Wii games with split-screen multiplayer capability. Taken together, this means the Wii is by and large, a solitary

Wii supports four Wii Remotes and four GameCube controllers per console. Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii allow for up to four players, and I've read about Wii games that allow for up to five.

The Wii does not allow the two-way voice communication with other players.

They're in the same room; turn your head and speak to them. If not, try Wii Speak.

If the Wii players want to gather in the same room and play they will find that there are very few Wii games with split-screen multiplayer capability.

That's because a lot of popular game designs, such as those of Bomberman series or Smash Bros. series or New Super Mario Bros. Wii or several scenes in Mario Party series, show all player characters within the confines of a sui

Wii supports four Wii Remotes and four GameCube controllers per console. Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii allow for up to four players, and I've read about Wii games that allow for up to five.

Amusingly, there is a game that actually has a mode which allows up to 8 people to play simultaneously: Bust-A-Move Bash! [wikipedia.org]

The Xbox 360 player puts on the headphone/mic headset and is instantly talking to his circle of friends over the internet while navigating through a virtual world with them. The Wii does not allow the two-way voice communication with other players. If the Wii players want to gather in the same room and play they will find that there are very few Wii games with split-screen multiplayer capability. Taken together, this means the Wii is by and large, a solitary experience unless the players take turns watching

If anything, it's the 360 that has crap for local multiplayer: How often do multiplayer games require a second console, and a second copy of the $60 game to run? And how many of the few games that support local coop do it through a badly implemented split screen?

The best selling games on the Wii are mainly multiplayer games, look it up.

Parent post was a bit misguided. The Wii is the king of local multiplayer...no doubt. The 360 does multiplayer over the Internet much better. It's good to have competition.

The drawback for the Wii is that (at least with people I know) we don't have people over every day...so most people's Wii's are gather dust until they have a party every few months whereas people are always playing their 360. Also, the 360 tends to attract people who buy more games. Where the Wii hit a whole new market of people who

There were a great many terrible games that came out on the Wii that were made under the notion that 'those idiots will buy anything'. No matter how profitable the console, crappy games wont sell. They looked only at the install base, and made assumptions that did not hold up in reality. It also does not help that the Wii presents some interesting problems for developers; The marketing angle of 'this is not a typical game machine' worked a bit too well. This is why some companies (Ubisoft and EA) are n

Which I suppose makes the whole 160% thing the GP pointed out actually rather interesting; wouldn't a percentage that low indicate that far more titles are single-platform than multi-platform? I thought releasing your game on every damn platform possible (or at least 360/PS3) was the thing that everyone did now...

Nintendo isn't very hostile anymore, especially not enough to make ignoring half the console market worth it. Third parties only make godawful games for the Wii to prey on "stupid casuals" while putting anything worth buying on the 360 and PS3, then they proclaim that third party games don't sell on the Wii. I don't know if they honestly believe the bullshit they've been spouting but they act like Nintendo is some magical being that does not follow the rules of the market that the rest of the world follows

I'm not sure I agree with you here. Yes, for the most part, the Wii is the land lf third-party shovelware, yet the few good third-party games don't sell all that well either, so why bother? No More Heroes - 0.5M. A Boy and His Blob - 0.08M. Resi 4 - 1.67M. Okami - 0.3M. de Blob - 0.77M. Geometry Wars Galaxies - 0.1M. I surely missed quite a few games, but out of this lot, only Resident Evil 4 could be considered a good success.

Then you have Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (7.54M 67% average), Carni

Games sell on quality and brand recognition. So you do get some good games that don't sell well or some awful games that sell well because they feature something popular. Mario games are generally high quality and to a lesser extent so are Sonic games. So it's no surprise that Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, which combines those two names with a hugely popular event from that time would sell well.

No More heroes didn't sell loads but it must have done well enough for them to consider a sequel on the Wi

True, Nintendo is far less hostile than it was in the NES days when it was found either guilty or liable (I forget which) of monopolizing the market for video game consoles by demanding exclusivity agreements from developers and retailers. Competition from Sega, Sony, and Microsoft has scaled some of Nintendo's hostility back, but some indies still get shafted by Nintendo's policies requiring a dedicated office and apparently a prior commercial title on a non-Nintendo platform just to get the SDK. See also

It's not specific to a particular company, actually. It's particular to a specific threshold of success, or so it seems.

Whenever a company enjoys a high degree of success in a particular market, they tend to start acting like asses toward the developers who made them successful. Just a few years ago, Sony was particularly flush with themselves with the success of the PlayStation 2. As a developer creating a PS2 game, it was unbelievably annoying to go through the approval process, in which those idiots a

There are three issues that the wii presents for most game developers used to developing traditional console or even PC games.

All three of these issues can be summed up as that the Wii presents a completely new gaming paradigm for developers. I think the biggest issue is that the wiimote presents a very different interface than traditional console and PC games. I bet most developers have no idea how to take advantage of the wiimote and the motion-sensitive options it provides. The few games that have used t

The problem is all the game consoles and most (all?) of the cellphones are DRM encumbered. Nobody can publish a program for these systems unless they get the personal approval of the manufacturer or use an "illegal circumvention device."

With both Microsoft and Apple both deep into DRM, one has to wonder if their ultimate goal may be to convert general purpose computers into the same censored kind of device. It is asinine when you buy hardware and are not allowed to install whatever software you legally ow

The problem is all the game consoles and most (all?) of the cellphones are DRM encumbered. Nobody can publish a program for these systems unless they get the personal approval of the manufacturer or use an "illegal circumvention device."

Surely there's only one mobile phone company that this applies to (Apple)? The rest, you are free to write apps for them.

You have to remember the fact that console gaming died because of the pile of shit that was being dumped onto those systems. Nintendo was strict but to be quite honest it was needed at that point. Nintendo isn't that strict any more. Perhaps the last time they were was on the N64 which arguably helpful towards publishers as well since it was such an expensive platform to develop for due to the use of carts.

Nintendo's requirements are going to be the same as any other console developer except for maybe th

So how does one start a proper business? Nintendo wants "relevant game industry experience", which I interpret as ruling out releasing a developer's first commercial title on Wii, DS, or DSi. I assume the other major consoles have similar rules, so I guess a developer's first title has to be on either Windows or a smartphone. They want a dedicated office, which means a company needs to already have a revenue stream in order to be able to afford an office. So if one has developed a video game designed to be

Why can't your home be your office? I suspect if you had an established business and already working on a title you could put your first title on a Nintendo system but if you are remotely serious about publishing a full console title then you'll need to have a business anyway. Whether your office is your bedroom or not, you should have a business set up. You can't really expect to be potentially taking in millions without having a business established otherwise you're just making it harder on yourself when

Because it would be an instant disqualification. Please allow me to quote from the page at that URL: "We require that companies are working from secure business offices. Home offices are not considered secure locations."

Whether your office is your bedroom or not, you should have a business set up.

I want to start a video game development business. Can you recommend a guide to doing this? I would use Google, but I'm not the most skilled at judging the reliability of random Internet sources, and I wanted to know whether you knew of a guide that covers all bases that you find important.

Because it would be an instant disqualification. Please allow me to quote from the page at that URL: "We require that companies are working from secure business offices. Home offices are not considered secure locations."

I had noticed that but opted to ignore it because, if what 2D Boys' wiki entry says about their office is true then they don't have an office as such. Perhaps one exists for legal reasons but I would assume they don't just rent a building to have an address for Nintendo and yet World of Goo is on WiiWare.

The application is clearly aimed at scaring off time wasters and kids wanting to sign up for whatever reason. I'm sure if you presented solid proof of a game concept and were an actual business they woul

Alternatively, develop it as a PC game first where there is no barrier for entry and once it's out there, contact Nintendo.

That was how I originally planned it: develop the game on PC, get the business in order, sell copies of the PC version, and then apply for a console license. But it appears this method wouldn't pay the bills because very few people have their PC connected to a sufficiently large monitor. It's not easy to fit four people holding USB gamepads around a laptop's 13" display or even the 19-incher that often comes with a desktop PC, and not enough gamers are aware that a (now cheap) 32" HDTV will work with a PC.

Oh btw, I forgot, you can declare part of your home, like a garage, as a business providing the local government allows you to have a business in that area. That is one way to get around having a separate office location and would likely be acceptable and may be what 2D Boys did.

And heck, if you really release something good, Apple might just decide to ban your app and release their own copycat app!

I'm not sure where that idea came from. As far as I know, Apple has only released two iPhone apps beyond the 15 or so that come bundled with the phone for adjusting the phone's basic settings, sending and receiving SMS messages, operating the camera etcetera. In other words, all the same types apps you'd get with any smart phone. The other two are both remote control apps; one allows you to use your phone to control iTunes playback on any computer on your local network and the other is for controlling a Key

Do you realize that the Wii just had its best Christmas sales-wise due to New Super Mario Bros Wii?

Third parties abandoning the Wii does not mean the Wii is suffering, for the most part these third parties have been completely useless and only producing garbage that hurts the Wii more than it helps.

Why yes, but that means that the Wii is the N64 and Gamecube all over again, where everybody buys the exact same Nintendo games so when you go check out the Nintendo sections of the used games stores over the years, they have 10 copies of Nintendo-foo, and one copy of non-Nintendo-foo great game that no one bought.

Which do you think is easier to find, the N64 version of Mega Man Legends or the PSone version.

Or between the Gamecube and PS2 versions of Balder's Gate: Dark Alliance.

The Wii itself is not suffering, however the wii game devs are, it is few and far between for best selling Wii titles, not because the games suck but because the Wii user base have a very low amount of time played compared to xbox,ps,pc. They buy less games and spend less time playing, so while wii sales are excellent the actual dev studios are not having such a joyous time of it.

The Wii is going to tank? You hope Nintendo has enough cash? Dude, the Wii came out almost three and a half years ago, sales dropping off now means only that it might not have the longevity Nintendo hopes, not that it's tanking, as you say. It's still sold more units than any other Nintendo console. Calling the Wii anything but a success seems silly.

The Wii is not going to tank, obviously. Nintendo is flush with cash. If I were an investor, I would think it was great thing. But I am a gamer, and I don't really care who is the most profitable, I care where the best games are. And let's be honest, the Wii's third party games suck. If you really don't feel like having Mario in pretty much every game you play, you aren't really left with much.

I think it is great that Nintendo is doing well, but it really is moving away from its core audience (I grew

personally I love the difference in the wii compared to standard sit on my ass and push buttons. i guess that is why msft and sony are both developing motion based controllers for their units.

If it was such a losy gimmick why is MSFT even bothering withthe tech?

I like running through a group of bad guys literally swinging my weapons. It is only the childish animation that is annoying and the stupid music that limits it. A good game should leave you tired and sore all over not just your ass.

A bit of thought, if you're willing to invest it, should make you very embarrassed that you said all that publicly. The Wii could stop selling NOW, and it's doubtful the 360 or PS3 would EVER catch up to it. Nintendo has already won this console generation in terms of sales, profit, and popularity.

Wii has been a runaway success of such gigantic proportions that no-one really expected Nintendo to pull something like that off. You don't have to like the device or the games, but don't be an idiot: stuffing your fingers in your ears and going lalalaa won't make the console go away.

The game market mechanics are different with Wii, this was obvious to anyone with half a brain: after all, Nintendo managed to sell consoles and games to a totally new ma

There are a lot more grandmas (and grandpas like my dad) than there are people like you. Hence the Wii's enormous popularity. My dad mainly plays racing games with a couple of kiddy titles for the grandkids when they come round.

When I came into the video game industry in 1997, the Nintendo 64 was one the way out. Duck Dodgers [ign.com] was the last game I worked on for that platform.

I think Sony has a bigger problem with their consoles. Playstation 1 was still kicking long after Playstation 2 came out. Playstation 2 was still kicking long after Playstation 3 came out. That might change if Sony comes out with a Playstation 4 sooner [geek.com].

The frakkin PS2 just won't DIE!. There's still new games made for it...mostly RPG's it seems since they take soooo long to develop, we're probably seeing the tail end of those. And unlike the Gamecube, you can still buy new PS2's and all the DualShocks, memory cards and games, new, on the shelves.

Is that really the case? I'll grant that PS2 disc games are cheaper to develop than PS3 disc games, but unlike the PS2, the PS3 also has an online app store, and app stores in general tend to be cheaper than retail distribution. PhyreEngine [wikipedia.org] appears to be Sony's attempt to compete with XNA Game Studio; the one question mark is how to get a game published on any Sony platform if you're not a medium to large business.

Judging by the all the shared titles, it also seems relatively easy to port PS2 games too the Wii and vice versa. The PS2 usually gets the better end of the deal because it doesn't have to deal with waggleware. The wiimote is designed like an NES controller and has two more buttons (not counting home). God forbid any developer actually use them!

It's fine to port PS2 titles to the Wii as long as they don't come across as being a PS2 port. Nintendo gave developers hell for doing that on the Gamecube. If you want Nintendo approval to release a game for their console, the PS2 port has to be identifiable as a Nintendo title with all the buttons and all the eye candy. God forbid if someone mistaken a Nintendo title for a PS2 port.

I think everyone is a bit wary about moving to the next generation. I think MS and Sony would like to milk this generation as long as possible and there should be no reason not to if the best selling system has nearly last gen graphics.

I do think Sony will do its best to beat MS to launching a system. Quite frankly the PS3 has performed better than the 360 when compared to the same time frame (ie launch year vs launch year) and that's why the PS3 has managed to catch up and could possibly over take the 3

There has never been such a hardware disparity between a console gen than this gen. Quite frankly, the Wii was very smart for staying in the price range it did, but it needs to have a shorter life cycle because there are many games that skip over the Wii because it can't handle the graphics or the amount of AI require to play a game. Ports are stripped down and barely resemble the original. It's fine for games only designed for the Wii...bu